Chapter 3 - I Loved the Monster. Then I Blew Him Up.

Calla's POV

A cold wind cuts across the football field, pulling a low, hollow sound behind it.

I'm up at the top of the bleachers, flashlight out, reading the guard's journal page from the system drop.

One line, written in a shaky scrawl: "That boy, Emerson Shade. His blood soaked the entire building. They told me to keep my mouth shut."

Emerson Shade.

The campus Boss. The one the main objective is pointing me toward.

So he didn't just die. Someone made sure no one would ever find out.

I tuck the page into my system inventory and look out toward the school building.

After I sent that message, the group chat goes quiet for about two minutes. Then the notifications start coming in.

【Brett: Calla? The hell? You're actually still alive?】

【Lacey: Is it actually safe in there? Don't you dare lie to me.】

【Calla: Why would I lie? I found some food in here and the door locks fine. Just get over here, I'm scared.】

I type it exactly the way I always sound around them. Timid. Eager to please. I even throw in a scared little emoji for good measure.

I know exactly how these people work.

Brett is paranoid and selfish to his core. Show him any kind of strength and he won't buy it for a second. But the more I act like someone he can push around, the more confident he gets that he can walk in and take whatever I have.

And right on cue.

【Brett: Good. Stay there and keep the door locked. I'm coming. And if you touched any of that food, I swear to God.】

I close the chat and lean back against the cold bleacher railing, waiting.

The chemistry lab door is already wrecked from the guard. No food in there, just the heavy smell of blood and char.

In a horror game, that kind of smell is the best bait there is.

About ten minutes later, in the thin moonlight, I watch five or six people scramble from the direction of the security office toward the first-floor chemistry lab. Brett's out front, clutching some rusted iron bar he found somewhere. Lacey's got a fistful of his jacket and can barely keep up.

They pile into the lab.

"Calla! Where the hell are you? I don't see any damn food!" Brett's voice comes out muffled but furious, bouncing off the walls of the empty campus.

Then.

Something roars from deep inside the building. Not a human sound. Something much bigger.

I watch from the bleachers.

A figure tears out of the hallway and fills the lab doorway: nearly ten feet tall, body stitched together from mismatched parts, dragging an enormous rusted cleaver. The smell of the guard's remains still in the lab is what pulled it here.

Screaming erupts from inside. The cleaver comes down, and the screaming changes.

I watch the group chat.

【System Announcement: Player Leo Hartley has died.】

【System Announcement: Player has died.】

One after another. Like music.

【Players currently alive: 31. Prize pool updated to: $16,200,000.】

Brett and Lacey are still online.

【Brett: You set us up you psycho!! You did this on purpose!!】

【Lacey: You're gonna pay for this!! Help!! Somebody please help me!!】

I look at the screen and the corner of my mouth pulls up.

I type.

【Calla: Oh, right. I forgot to mention, something broke the lab door earlier. You guys should probably keep it down in there. Don't want to draw anything else over.】

I turn off notifications and put the phone away.

Fear comes from being outgunned and outthought. Simple as that.

I get up and roll the stiffness out of my neck.

Time to find the next clue.

I look toward the far end of campus, at the old arts building sitting behind its rusted chain-link fence.

"Emerson Shade," I say quietly. "Where are you hiding?"